Hellboy 2: Even More Hellboy

Some dashed off thoughts, having just come back from the theater (Why spend hours sleeping when you can fill them with 100-foot images of demon justice?):

- A couple of us "pre-gamed" for the movie by watching the first Hellboy before heading to the theater. One thing is clear, right away: Del Toro got loads more cabbage to spend on the second, and he used it. CGI was better by a factor of 3.4. Possibly 3.5.

- Ron Perlman is a great character actor. I think this movie, though, flirts with the dangerous abyss of Perlman-overload. I think it helps that he's covered up with 20 lbs of makeup and is in such a specifically campy role.

- Del Toro is really confident now, and is letting his freak flag flap in gale-force winds. He has so many eerie and clever characters in that head of his, and Hellboy allows him a great way to show them. This interview with Mignola gives you an insight into how intensely Del Toro likes to simply create.

- Some clever lines, some cheesy lines, some lines that I suspect a non-native English speaker might find a satisfactory approximation to films of the past. If this sound appetizing to you, have you got a good movie to go see this weekend.

- I identified Seth Macfarlane's voice within two minutes of exposure. The German accent sounded far too much like Stewie impersonating Hitler. Funny though.

- Selma Blair, with a haircut so sharp and sexy that Charlize Theron just hiccuped. I don't even know what that means, but I'm smitten.

- If this line doesn't summarize the bizzare feeling of the film, nothing will:

"I'm not a baby, I'm a tumor."

It's funny, really.

In summary, if you have any small part of your heart that still loves overly large, fantastical, and strange films, see it. If any part of you loves summer movie spectacle (and who doesn't), see it. If you have a bitterly rational view of the world, and you can't grok phantasmagorical villains, you should probably go soak your head, and then pay too much to see Journey To The Center Of The Earth.